April 2010

April 28, 2010

Alan Ball is an important part of the Cowboys plans for the 2010 secondary, and they reached contract agreement with him today. Ball was an exclusive rights free agent and received a contract for $545,000.

Ball was drafted out of the University of Illinois in the seventh round of the 2007 draft and distinguished himself last season when he started four games in place of the injured Ken Hamlin at safety. He is expected to be the starter at free safety this season.

Last season, Ball had a career high in tackles with 19 and pass breakups with four.

Let's not go overboard giving Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland credit for manning up and apologizing to Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant for asking him if his mom was a prostitute during pre-draft interviews.

What else was he going to do? It was out there in the public thanks to a story by Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports.

If it wouldn't have come to light, Ireland would not be apologizing. That's the problem. It should have never come to that.

Ireland was out of line with the question in the first place. He simply went to far in his zest to find out everything he needed to know about a draft prospect. Some people want to blame the NFL and it's uncover-every-stone interrogation process. But that is no excuse for being crass and disrespectful.

Bryant didn't deserve that. His mom didn't deserve that. Instead of giving Bryant credit for overcoming a tough upbringing and reaching this point in spite of it all, Ireland had to go there.

Ireland was the Cowboys scouting director before going to the Dolphins as general manager. He came across as a good guy. That's why this whole ordeal is disappointing.

It wreaks of racial stereotypes that certainly have no place in a league filled with players who overcame rough upbringings.

Bryant's mother had him when she was 15. She sold drugs and spent time in jail. That Bryant is here should be considered a success.

By all accounts he has not been in trouble with the law. He has no known history of alcohol or substance use, let alone abuse.

His biggest so called crime was lying to the NCAA about having dinner with former Cowboys cornerback Deion Sanders. The dinner did not violate NCAA rules. But a nervous Bryant lied because he thought it was and was subsequently declared ineligible for his final season at Oklahoma State.

Ireland's question makes you some what understand why a nervous Bryant may have distrusted the NCAA and why he felt he had to lie.

It also shows you that Bryant, whose supposed character concerns scared teams away from drafting him, has a lot restraint. Because nobody should be allowed to disrespect your mother and get away with it.

But the answer to Ireland's out of line question was no.

What difference would the answer have made it anyway. If Bryant would have said yes, what does that have to do with him and his ability to play football.

It was a question that should have never been asked that had no business being asked. Apologizing after the fact rings hollow.

Free agent safety Ken Hamlin, cut by the Cowboys earlier this month, was scheduled to arrive in Cincinnati on Tuesday night for avisit with the Bengals today. He had a post on Twitter about his visit Tuesday afternoon.

Bryant told Yahoo! Sports that, in pre-draft interviews, one team asked him if his mother was a prostitute. Yahoo! cited a source saying it was the Dolphins.

"They asked me if my mom's a prostitute," Bryant told Yahoo's Michael Silver. "No, my mom is not a prostitute. I got mad – really mad – but I didn't show it. I got a lot of questions like that: Does she still do drugs? I sat and answered all of them."

That prompted Ireland, the former vice president of college and pro scouting for the Cowboys, to release a statement Tuesday after talking to Bryant. (Ireland received permission from the Cowboys before calling Bryant.)

"My job is to find out as much information as possible about a player that I’m considering drafting," Ireland said in a statement released by the Dolphins. "Sometimes that leads to asking in-depth questions. Having said that, I talked to Dez Bryant and told him I used poor judgment in one of the questions I asked him. I certainly meant no disrespect and apologized to him. I appreciate his acceptance of that apology, and I told him I wished him well as he embarks on his NFL career."

After going undrafted, New Hampshire tight end Scott Sicko decided he was going back to grad school. He said he took that as a sign that he was done with football. But three days later, after the Cowboys convinced Sicko he had a chance to make their roster, Sicko decided to give the NFL a try.

"After Scott initially made the decision to not play, the Cowboys, as well as other teams, continued to have active dialogue with me and also with Scott," said J.R. Rickert, Sicko's agent. "We are grateful that the Cowboys made this opportunity possible for Scott and he is 100 percent committed to joining them."

Sicko, 22, will be at Valley Ranch for the team's minicamp this weekend.

After Miles Austin set a team record with 250 yards against Kansas City, receivers coach Ray Sherman told Austin: Don't go Hollywood on me. Sherman still isn't concerned about Austin losing his focus, even after Austin's breakout season of 81 catches for 1,320 yards and 11 touchdowns.

"None of that," Sherman said. "He's the most humble person you ever want to be around. Even now, he's humble. He's not letting it go to his head at all. He has fun, but believe me, he knows how to put it in perspective."

Even with the addition of Dez Bryant, Austin will have to be prepared for more double teams this season, Sherman said.

"They did it last year, but he'll probably see more of it," Sherman said. "He's just got to understand and be aware of that."

DeMarcus Ware fought through head, neck, back, foot and wrist injuries last season and still had 11 sacks after getting a league-leading 20 in 2008. After the Pro Bowl, he had surgery on his left foot to remove a bone spur.

Ware has been working out, and his foot feels fine, he said, but he's not yet 100 percent.

"I would never say 100 percent," Ware said. "I would say 94 percent. The surgery went well after the season. I had a bone spur, and they just shaved it down. Now, everything is good."

If Ware can stay healthy, he could regain his sack title from Denver linebacker Elvis Dumervil.

"I need to get that," Ware said. "That's always a goal for me to get pressure on the quarterback."

April 26, 2010

That is the status update of Cowboys receiver Miles Austin on his Facebook account tonight. I didn't know why until I clicked on www.profootballtalk.com and saw a post linking to cornerback DeAngelo Hall predicting that the Redskins will win 11 or 12 games and dominate the NFC East.

"It's based on the talent we feel like we've got. It's based on the improvements I feel like we've made. It's based on the scheme," Hall said during an interview with Dan Steinberg of the DC Sports Blog. "The scheme alone is gonna give us four or five more wins. The games we lost by two, three points, we'll win those games, easy."

"We'll dominate our division, off of bringing Donovan McNabb in here, a guy who's dominated the division in the past," Hall continued. "So that's just an educated guess. That's an educated guess, and I stand behind. I'll stand behind that. I'll fight and claw to try to make that happen."

So if you didn't know now you know. You also know why Miles Austin is rolling on the floor laughing and out of breath.